Nintendo sees Apple as bigger threat than Microsoft

So claims US boss Reggie

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Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime sees Apple as a bigger short-term threat to Nintendo's business than Microsoft, according to comments made in a new interview.

Xbox platform holder Microsoft does not compete directly with Nintendo in the portable gaming market, although all of that may well change if gaming proves to be popular on the recently-launched Microsoft Windows Phone 7 platform.

What is Nintendo's competition?

For the time being though, Fils-Aime told Forbes: "I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaper."

And as for the competition? "Do I think that in the near term they [Apple] can hurt us more than Microsoft? Absolutely."

The Nintendo boss hopes that the depth of gaming experiences on Nintendo DS and Wii will continue to give the Japanese gaming giant the edge, when compared with casual bite-sized gaming on social networks or smartphones.

A hardcore gamer through and through, Fils-Aime added that he has so far spent around 150 hours playing Nintendo's Dragon Quest, taking the opportunity to also point out that Nintendo currently has 14 of the 20 best-selling games for the current generation of gaming platforms.